IDWF e-Newsletter #17 - June 2017

International Domestic Workers Day June 16, 2017, the IDWF calls for "All for one, One for all: Dignity and Decent Work for all National, Migrant and Refugee Domestic Workers"!

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"All for one, One for all:Dignity and Decent Work for all National, Migrant and Refugee Domestic Workers"

As domestic workers, women, migrants and refugees, the members of the International Domestic Workers Federation stand united across the globe on this June 16th in a call for comprehensive policy frameworks that tackle the root causes of poverty, discrimination and insecurity to ensure everyone has decent work, freedom of mobility, and lives free of violence in all its forms.

Check out the IDWF’s 2016 Annual Report!

IDWF at the ILO

Several IDWF leaders from the ExCo, staff, and affiliates are participating now in the International Labour Conference discussions on labour migration, governance, and fair recruitment, ensuring the realities and needs of migrant domestic workers are addressed.

Regional Updates

HTS-Union (UHFTAWU), the Ugandan domestic workers union, is defending the rights of Ugandan women migrating abroad as domestic workers. Through a radio program, they’ve reached many workers who they’ve been able to help escape and get justice. The union is seeking to monitor recruitment agencies and push the government to create strong bilateral agreements with receiving countries, who seek Ugandan women for cheap labor and because they speak English.

HTS-Union (UHFTAWU) helped this worker return from the UAE and recovered the Ugx. 2,000,000 recruitment fees she had paid from the agency that trafficked her.

Under the auspices of development, many women are displaced, forced to migrate, and face exploitation. In India, many domestic workers are internal migrants displaced from their communities because their livelihoods were destroyed by mining, deforestation, and other types of "development".

IDWF and its affiliates, together with a global network of organizations that work to protect migrant workers, join forces and develop different actions, services, research and resources in their struggle to guarantee the human rights of all domestic workers independently of their nationality or immigration status.

North America: USA“When there is an extreme power imbalance, people—particularly women—are vulnerable to slavery.”

Last month an article entitled “My Family’s Slave,” published in the magazine The Atlantic, went viral on social media in the US and Philippines. NDWA responded to the article with an OpEd in The Atlantic written by our Director, Ai-jen Poo entitled, “Lola Wasn’t Alone: Slavery Persists in Homes Across America,” shining a light on how common trafficking is in domestic work and what survivors are doing to end it.